A liquid metering device

ABSTRACT

A liquid metering device designed primarily for metering fuel into an internal combustion engine of the reciprocating type, is installed within the intake pipe of the intake manifold. The pump device comprises an elongated housing having a port at one end, a rod-like member is arranged in a housing coaxially therewith, with one end of the member secured to the closed end of the housing. The other end of the member carries an enlarged head which is arranged to snugly but slidably fit within the port. The member and housing are made of magnetostrictive materials of different polarity and the entire housing is surrounded by an electromagnetic coil which is arranged to connect to a current pulse generator. Liquid is introduced into the housing and current pulses from the generator are applied to the coil. The magnetostrictive characteristics of the housing and piston cause the housing to elongate relative to the member with each pulse, so that a shearing action takes place between the head and wall of the port which forces the liquid out of the device in the form of uniform small diameter liquid particles, which are carried along by the air into the intake manifold and into the engine cylinders. A similar device is used to meter water into the intake manifold to increase the efficiency of the engine by increasing the anti-knock properties of the fuel and, in turn, the pollutants exhausted from the engine are minimized.

States n91 fig MCKEEH Dec. 31, 1974 LIQUID METERING DEVICE [76]Inventor: Joseph E. McKeen, 10861 Elm Ave., Lynwood, Calif. 90262 [22]Filed: Mar. 16, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 342,235

[52] US. Cl 251/129, 239/102, 431/1, 137/604 [51] Int. Cl. B051) 3/14,F16k 31/02 [58] Field of Search ..239/101, 102; 431/1; 251/129; 417/322[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,481,620 9/1949 Rosenthal239/102 3,145,931 8/1964 Cleall 431/1 X 3,224,677 12/1965 Schmidt et al.239/101 3,474,967 10/1969 Bodine 1 239/102 3,679,132 7/1972 Vehe 239/102X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 256,226 10/1927 Great Britain 239/101Primary Examiner-Arnold Rosenthal Attorney, Agent, or Firm-DominickNardelli [57] ABSTRACT A liquid metering device designed primarily formetering fuel into an internal combustion engine of the reciprocatingtype, is installed within the intake pipe of the intake manifold. Thedevice comprises an elongated housing having a port at one end, arod-like member is arranged in a housing coaxially therewith, with oneend of the member secured to the closed end of the housing. The otherend of the member carries an enlarged head which is arranged to snuglybut slidably fit within the port. The member and housing are made ofmagnetostrictive materials of different polarity and the entire housingis surrounded by an electro magnetic coil which is arranged to connectto a current pulse generator. Liquid is introduced into the housing andcurrent pulses from the generator are applied to the coil. Themagnetostrictive characteristics of the housing and piston cause thehousing to elongate relative to the member with each pulse, so that ashearing action takes place between the head and wall of the port whichforces the liquid out of the device in the form of uniform smalldiameter liquid particles, which are carried along by the air into theintake manifold and into the engine cylinders. A similar device is usedto meter water into the intake manifold to increase the efficiency ofthe engine by increasing the anti-knock properties of the fuel and, inturn, the pollutants exhausted from the engine are minimized.

7 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures MANIFOLD PRESSURE VARIABLE HEIGHT PULSEGENERATOR POWER SUPPLY TO MANIFOLD PATENTEI] DEC3 1 I974 32 MANIFOLDPRESSURE PULSE GENERATOR POWER SUPPLY VARIABLE HEIGHT TO MANIFOLD 1LIQUID METERING mzv-rca FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates toa liquid metering device and, more particularly, to a carburetorutilizing a liquid metering device which controllably feeds liquid intothe intake of a manifold in accordance with the engines speed andacceleration.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In conventional internal combustion engines,the fuel is divided by the carburetor by using an asperating principle,and the-fuel is divided into fine particles or droplets which are mixedwith the air to form a combustion mixture. These fine particles areinherently unequal in size. This mixture is fed to the engine, where itis ignited. These prior art engines have several drawbacks. First, theyare pressure sensitive; that is, the air fuel ratio depends upon theatmospheric pressure in which the engine is operated. Thus, at lowspeeds, the air-fuel ratio is different than at high speeds. Also, whileaccelerating, the accelerator pump pumps relatively large amounts offuel into the manifold, wetting the internal surfaces. Then at a steadyspeed, the liquid fuel evaporates, enriching the mixture that results inunburned fuel being exhausted.

Compounding the problem is the fact that present day engines requirefuel additives (tetraethyl lead) to prevent preignition, commonly knownas engine ping or knock. Many of the additives do not enter into thecombustion process, but pass through the engine. The high combustiontemperatures (of about 3000F) changes the equilibrium constant of thecombustion process wherein relatively large amounts of ammonia andoxides of nitrogen are produced. In other words, the higher temperatureincreases the production of toxic compounds which are discharged intothe atmosphere. Water has been known, for a long time, as an anti-knockcompound, and is used in present day aircraft with reciprocatingengines. Water is known to have a cooling effect on the combustionprocess so that the production of these toxic compounds is sharplyreduced as well as preventing engine knock. However, water injection, aspresently known, is costly and relatively complex and heretofore has notbeen used in commercial and passenger highway vehicles utilizing thesereciprocating type internal combustion engines.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide asimple, economical means for reducing knock and toxic emission compoundsfrom reciprocating internal combustion engines.

Another object of this invention is to provide a means for deliveringliquids to an internal combustion engine in droplets of a relativelyuniform size wherein the drop size increases with engine speed.

Another object is to provide a means for delivering fuel to an internalcombustion reciprocating engine wherein the droplets are substantiallyof the same size at any given time.

Another object is to provide a liquid metering device which deliversprecise controlled amounts of liquid in controlled droplet size.

Another object is to provide a liquid metering device which performsreliably for relatively long periods with minimummaintenance.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device for metering fuelto an internal combustion engine which is relatively insensitive tochanges in ambient temperature and pressure conditions.

Another object of this invention is to provide a device for meteringfuel to an engine which requires a minimum amount of adjustment :in use.

Another object of this invention is to provide a device for meteringfuel to an engine which'is rugged and has a minimum number of workingparts, giving it a long useful service life.

Other objects and features of advantage of the invention will becomemore apparent after perusing the description of the preferredembodiment, together with the appended drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 2 is an enlarged section of theoutlet of the device of FIG. 1, showing the piston thereof fullyretracted.

FIG. 3 is the same view as in FIG. 2 wherein the piston has started itsmovement to the extended position.

FIG. 4 is the same view as FIG. 3 wherein the piston has moved furtherto its extended position, showing the droplets being formed.-

FIG. 5 is the same view as FIG. 4 wherein the piston is in a fullyextended position, showing the droplets drifting away therefrom.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Referring to FIG. 1, item 10represents an intake pipe to the manifold (not shown) of a reciprocalinternal combustion engine. The intake pipe 10 is preferably of thedown-draft type, and over and above the pipe 10 would be placed aconventional air cleaner. Unlike the intake pipes in standard presentday engines, this pipe would be nonmagnetic for reasons that will becomeapparent hereinafter. The butterfly valve (not shown) for accelerationwould be located preferably above the intake pipe shown in FIG. 1.Axially disposed within the pipe 10 are two novel devices, Ill and 12,which are used to feed fuel and water, respectively, into the en gine.Both devices 11 and 12 are constructed the same, and therefore onlydevice 11 will be described in detail. The device has a tubular body 13,with a closure disk 14 at one end, and on the other end is formed anoutlet port or opening 16 that is smaller than the internal diameter ofthe body 13. Snugly disposed within the opening 16 is a piston head 17.The head is suitably fixed by an axially disposed rod 18 to the disk 14.Near the disk 14 is formed an inlet port into which is disposed a tube19 to allow liquid to be pumped into the cavity of the device. In device11 the liquid would be fuel while in device 12 the liquid would bewater. A suiter spider means 21 supports the device axially within thepipe l0. Since the air is flowing down through the pipe 10, as viewed inthe drawings, ends 14 of the respective devices are provided with astreamlining means 15. In contrast with present day intake pipes,

the outside of pipe has an electromagnetic coil 22 therearou'nd. Thepurpose of the coil 12 is to activate the devicesto supply fuel andwater to the engine. In order that the devices respond to. the magneticfield, the rods 18 are preferably made of magnetostrictive material thatcontracts within a magnetic field. For example, such a material iscobalt-iron alloy, which is normally referred to as a negativemagnetostrictive material. The body 13 is preferably non-magnetic and ofzero magnetostrictivity, or it could be made, for example, of nickelwhich is positive magnetostrictive. Therefore, when a magnetic field isformed by coil 22, the piston head 17 retracts into the body 13 of thedevice, as shown in FIG. 2. For a given set of magnetostrictivematerials, this distance that the head retracts is dependent on thestrength of the magnetic field. With the head retracted, a somewhattoroidal meniscus 23 grows because the liquid flows out or is forced outby being displaced by the head 17 of the ring-shaped opening formedtherein. FIG. 3 shows the meniscus 23 larger and the head 17 closer tothe periphery of the outlet opening 16. FIG. 4 shows that the liquid hasbeen sheared by the head 17 and the toroidal-shaped liquid breaking upinto droplets 24. A point 26 on the head 17 aids in the formation of thetoroidal-shaped meniscus. Because the toroid is uniform is the reasonthe resulting droplets are believed to be uniform.

FIG. 5 shows the droplets 24 driftingapart and the head 17 is in thehome position. The droplets inherently are of uniform size and the sizethereof are also inherently relative to the stroke of the piston head,i.e.,

the larger the stroke the larger the droplet size. Due to the shearingaction of the piston head, the droplets are electrically charged, havingunder normal circumstances a positive charge. The charge on the dropletscause the droplets to repel each other, and this is believed to be thereason that the ring of droplets 24 in FIG. 5 grows larger. Thebell-shape 26 on the end of the body 13 aids the growth of the rings ofthe charged droplets which tend to be attracted to the wall thereof. Thedroplets are formed at a rate, for example, of 1,000 I-IZ (cycles persecond) and the pulsating power to the coil is supplied by a suitable,variable high-pulse generator 31. Since amplitudes of the pulsedetermine the magnetic field strength, the generator 31, should be ofthe type that changes the amplitude of the pulses in order to increasethe drop size. As the engine is speeding up, therefore fulfilling therequirement for more fuel. This, besides taking care of the increasedfuel requirements of the engine, inherently provides an antiknockfeature. The anti-knock feature is explained as follows: the large dropswithin the cylinder absorb heat from the compression stroke as theyvaporize. Therefore the temperature of the combustion mixture is lowerthan in standard present day engines. If the vaporization of fuel aloneis not sufficient to prevent engine knock,'the function of the waterpump 12 is to introduce droplets of water into the combustion mixture toprovide more pre-cooling. One sees that, as the engine speeds up, theanti-knocking properties of the fuel should increase since the pressuresincrease. This invention inherently provides a feature that increasesthe anti-knock properties of the fuel as the engine speeds up.

Since the system is to be automatic in that the flow of fuel shouldincrease with demands and without human adjustments, the pulse generator31 has an additional feature and at the pulse height responds to anincrease in amplitude of the impressed voltage thereon. This feature isalso attained in a state of direct pulse generator. In this case, thevoltage is attained from a suitable pressure transducer 32. Thepresssure transducer 32 responds, for example, to manifold pressure. Thepressure within the manifold is directly related to the amount of fuelrequired. In addition, if one requires, one could also sense the RPM ofthe engine by another state of the art transducer (not shown) to providea feedback signal to prevent what is commonly termed a hunting oroscillating effect. Thus, by monitoring the RPM and the manifoldpressure, the system could make a decision by the use of a suitablecircuit (not shown) that the engine is accelerating; therefore supplyingmore fuel than when the engine is at a steady state condition. If, inaddition, the system could decide, with a high RPM and a low manifoldpressure, that the engine is decelerating and therefore would sharplyreduce the supply of fuel to the engine; therefore, also aiding inreducing toxic emissions.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been described, theinvention is not limited to the described embodiment. One skilled in theart, after studying this disclosure, could conceive other embodimentswhich incorporate the scope of this invention. Therefore, the inventionis considered to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A liquid metering device comprising:

a compartment having an opening therein;

a head slidably disposed within said opening;

a rod disposed within said compartment having one end connected to saidhead and the other end to said compartment;

said rod and said housing being made of a material which, when under theinfluence of a magnetic material, will cause said head to retract intosaid compartment.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein a bell-shaped surface extends from theouter periphery of said opening, and a conical surface extends from theinner periphery of said head, so that an annular volume is formedoutside the compartment which increases in size.

fixed to said head and with the other end fixed to said compartment;said rod being made of a material that contracts under the influence ofa magnetic field; means for producing a pulsating magnetic field that issubstantially aligned with said rod to cause said rod to repeatedlycontract and pull said head into said compartment to form an annularopening; and means for feeding liquid into said compartment.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein said compartment passes increases insize. is made of a material that expands under the influence 7. Thedevice of claim 5 wherein said compartment of a magnetic field. has aninternal bell-shaped surface extending away 6. The device of claim 4wherein said compartment from the outer periphery of said opening; andhas an internal bell-shaped surface extending away 5 said head having anexternal conical surface extendfrom the outer periphery of said opening;and ing away from the periphery of said head so that said head having anexternal conical surface extendthe annular cross-section through whichthe liquid ing away from the periphery of said head so that passesincreases in size. the annular cross-section through which the liquid

1. A liquid metering device comprising: a compartment having an openingtherein; a head slidably disposed within said opening; a rod disposedwithin said compartment having one end connected to said head and theother end to said compartment; said rod and said housing being made of amaterial which, when under the influence of a magnetic material, willcause said head to retract into said compartment.
 2. The device of claim1 wherein a bell-shaped surface extends from the outer periphery of saidopening, and a conical surface extends from the inner periphery of saidhead, so that an annular volume is formed outside the compartment whichincreases in size.
 3. the device of claim 2 wherein: means are providedfor supplying liquid to the interior of said compartment; and means aresupplied for providing a pulsating magnetic field within the region ofsaid compartment.
 4. A device for supplying liquid into a flowing airstream within a pipe, said device comprising: a compartment disposedwithin and spaced from said pipe and having an opening facing thedirection of flow; a head slidably disposed within said opening; a rodhaving a diameter smaller than said head and disposed within saidcompartment, with one end fixed to said head and with the other endfixed to said compartment; said rod being made of a material thatcontracts under the influence of a magnetic field; means for producing apulsating magnetic field that is substantially aligned with said rod tocause said rod to repeatedly contract and pull said head into saidcompartment to form an annular opening; and means for feeding liquidinto said compartment.
 5. The device of claim 4 wherein said compartmentis made of a material that expands under the influence of a magneticfield.
 6. The device of claim 4 wherein said compartment has an internalbell-shaped surface extending away from the outer periphery of saidopening; and said head having an external conical surface extending awayfrom the periphery of said head so that the annular cross-sectionthrough which the liquid passes increases in size.
 7. The device ofclaim 5 wherein said compartment has an internal bell-shaped surfaceextending away from the outer periphery of said opening; and said headhaving an external conical surface extending away from the periphery ofsaid head so that the annular cross-section through which the liquidpasses increases in size.